Thursday, November 25, 2010

Friday, November 19, 2010

This craft is appropriate for all ages, but I have adapted it for a tiny friend. In preparation for making a pomander ball, place some favorite spices, including whole cloves, on the table in small dishes. We used cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger.

You also need a clementine, a piece of brightly colored fabric measuring about 10" by 10", and a piece of colorful ribbon measuring about a foot and a half. And you need some time, so that you and your child can relax and have fun without a rush. Remember, it is the process, and not the product, which are important to your child, and spending time with you. Also, remember to be your child's assistant. Let him decide how many cloves, which spices, how much to sprinkle, and when his pomander ball is done. If you start to itch to hijack his craft, you need to make one of your own!

Now, let's get cozy and make something. Start by letting your child smell the clementine.

Now place the clementine on the wrong side of the piece of fabric.

Introduce him to the whole cloves, letting him smell and touch them.

Make a few pilot holes in the clementine with a skewer or toothpick, so that it will be easy for your child to push in the whole cloves.

He may only want to put in three, four or five. He might want to do more. It's up to him.

This little one worked a few minutes with quiet absorption.

When he is ready to move on, let him smell and touch a spice. You don't want him to get any up his nose or in his eyes, though, that could hurt.

If he likes the way it smells, show him how to take a pinch and sprinkle it on his clementine.

He can sprinkle all his favorite spicy smells onto the clementine. In the picture below, he is having fun drawing in the nutmeg with his finger.

When he is finished, you can help him bundle the clementine into the fabric.

Knot the ribbon on to the fabric above the clementine. Now make a loop and knot it at the top, so that you can hang the clementine on a doorknob.

"Can we take it home?" he asked me. Of course you may, my sweet, wee friend! Hang up your pomander ball at home and let it all dry out. It will last a very long time.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I took some pictures as the sun sank low, the day before we turned the clocks back.

I felt that this was the last truly golden sunset of the season.

As Autumn wears on, the sun drops before we are ready. We aren't waiting for it.

We hurry home to get there before dark,

but the dark catches us.

We fumble with the dark keyhole when we arrive home with the children in the afternoon.

We go into the house, lighting lamps, turning on the front porch light, trying to create a spot of glow and welcome in the dark street.

In the kitchen, we bustle about, making warmth and cheer to welcome our husbands home.

We cluster there together, the fireplace flickering nearby, more than ever needing this time with one another at the end of the day.

It wasn't the last sunset we would see, but it felt like it.

There seems to be a big difference between these long golden sunsets of summer, which are like a pageant unfolding before our eyes, and the later, quick sunsets of winter, with the sky all lavender and chilly.

Soon, the greens, golds, oranges and reds will be replaced by browns, grays, blacks, and tans.

All the seeds will blow away or be eaten by the hungry birds.

The rosehips will shrivel and dry, a few of them clinging to the stems even in the snow.

The bright bittersweet fruit will drop.

Our eyes will seek out the most subtle gradations of color.

Bright color is gone, but it has left texture behind to interest and comfort us.

Beth Curtin

I am an American artist living in Switzerland. I am married and have three children. You have reached on of my two blogs. Beth Curtin Art is dedicated to my recent work in collage and paper cutting, preceded by my two large contemporary colored pencil series. Acorn Pies is my family-oriented blog, on which I share children's art making from my after-school art program, crafts, color, toy making, and outdoor fun. Thanks for coming to visit Beth Curtin Art and Acorn Pies!